The present disclosure relates to a fixing device for executing a fixing process onto a sheet on which a toner image has been formed, and to an image forming apparatus including the fixing device.
Conventionally, there have been known an image forming apparatus including a print mechanism of the electrophotography, such as a copier, printer, facsimile, and multifunction peripheral in which functions of these are installed. The image forming apparatus includes a fixing device. The fixing device includes a heating roller and a pressure roller, wherein the surface of the heating roller is heated by a heat source, and the rotational axis of the pressure roller is set to be parallel to the rotational axis of the heating roller. When a sheet with a toner image formed on the surface thereof passes through the fixing device, the sheet is heated while being nipped by the pressure roller and the heating roller with a certain pressure. This allows the toner to be fused and adhered to the sheet, thereby an image is fixed to the sheet.
Meanwhile, to improve the convenience of the user by reducing the warm-up time, the fixing device is required to have performance to raise the heating temperature in the fixing device as fast as possible. Conventionally, there is known a fixing device that has reduced the thermal capacity thereof by adopting, for example, a thin belt as a member for giving heat to the sheet and to the toner image formed on the sheet, in order to raise the heating temperature in the fixing device as fast as possible.